A large and growing population of users employs various electronic devices to perform functions, such as placing telephone calls (voice and/or video), sending and receiving email, text messaging, accessing the internet, playing games, consuming digital content (e.g., music, movies, images, electronic books, etc.), and so on. Among these electronic devices are electronic book (eBook) reader devices, mobile telephones, desktop computers, portable media players, tablet computers, netbooks, and the like.
Many of these electronic devices include touch screens to allow users to interact with the electronic devices using touch inputs. While touch input is an effective way of interfacing with electronic devices in some instances, in many instances touch inputs are problematic. For example, it may be difficult to use touch inputs when using a device one handed. As another example, when interacting with a device using touch input, a user's finger or stylus typically obscures at least a portion of the screen.
Additionally, many existing electronic device interfaces are cumbersome and/or unintuitive to use. For instance, electronic devices commonly display a plurality of available application icons on a screen of the electronic device. When a large number of applications are installed on the device, this sort of interface can become cluttered with icons. Moreover, it may be difficult to remember which icon corresponds to each application operation, particularly when application icons change over time as applications are updated and revised. Additionally, user interface controls used to perform various functions are often esoteric and unintuitive to users, and these also may change over time.
Thus, there remains a need for new interfaces for electronic devices and techniques for interacting with such interfaces and electronic devices.